Class explores mobile media space

RAMpicturephoning.com has pointed the way to a Web site of a class on mobile media, Cellphonia, at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York. There are some interesting projects.
CELLscape (Free Speech Bulletin II) is an art installation which people interact with using their mobile phones. Others involve having computer programs manipulate photos taken with camera phones. Another project takes pictures of people when it detects bluetooth-enabled device, then sends them the picture the next time the device comes within range.
A particularlay interesting one is a graphic novel based on Macbeth and called RAM, which is the latest thing to hit mobile phones. For those who stopped reading when they were children, “graphic novel” is the more dignified term for comic book. That being said, the trailer for RAM is in the form of a 3D cartoon. It seems like every form of media can transfer to the cellphone. What is interesing in this case is the way the graphic novel is meant to be promoted.

The novel will be serialized and viral in nature, meant to be passed from user to user. A user can trade episodes via BlueTooth or infrared technology, download from the publishing site on their mobile phone OR request to have SMS or MMS messages sent when updates are available. Users are encouraged to register at the site and will begin to receive SMS messages from characters in the novel initiating the episodes.

If this system takes off it could clear the way for “m-zines”, a word I just made up which refers to zines (small press publications) for mobiles. E-zines already exist, so it’s not such a stretch of the imagination. The problem has been the delivery of the publication to an audience, but once that is sorted out these things should pop up fairly widely.

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